The Foreign Policy Activism of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

[bigtree]

Then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a state banquet in St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle in Dublin where she urged all sides in Northern Ireland to take risks for peace in this Oct. 30, 1997 file photo.


Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association, New Orleans, LA, Fairmont Hotel, Mar 23, 2005

Mrs. Clinton’s Foreign Policy Activism


Hilary Rodham Clinton’s first trip abroad as first lady was accompanying President Bill Clinton to the G-7 economic summit in Japan in July 1993. In early 1994 she made her first official trip abroad without the president leading the American delegation to the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Later that year, in May, the first lady joined Vice President Al Gore as a last minute replacement for the president as a member of the U.S. delegation to the presidential inauguration of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. March 1995 would see Hilary Rodham Clinton take her first extended trip abroad without the president when she traveled to South Asia. In September she traveled to China where she served as honorary Chair of the American delegation and delivered a key address at the United Nations Fourth World Conferences on Women. In November, 1995 she would join the president on an official trip to England, Ireland, Germany, and Spain. The next summer she would partner with United Nations Ambassador Madeline Albright on a tour of Eastern and Central Europe. Accompanied by Chelsea as she often was on her foreign travels, the first lady returned to Africa in March 1997. In July Hillary Rodham Clinton accompanied the president to a NATO Summit in Madrid where she was the keynote speaker at Vital Voices: Women in Democracy meeting. Before the year ended she traveled to Great Britain and Northern Ireland for a “Third Way” meeting and to Central Asia. 1998 saw the Clintons visit Africa, China, Russia, Ireland, and the Middle East. They returned to the Middle East in January, 1999 for the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan. The first lady would also make trips that year to Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and the Balkans.

As practiced by Hilary Rodham Clinton first lady diplomacy was much more than an exercise in symbolism. Her diplomacy was consistent with the manner in which diplomacy is conducted in the contemporary international system. At the same time her diplomacy was the product of the interaction of a set of personal and institutional forces that are not universally present in every administration. There is thus no reason to expect that all first ladies that follow her will engage in non-symbolic diplomacy.

Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye identified complex interdependence as a prism through which to understand world politics today. It is organized around three characteristics: multiple channels of interaction, an absence of hierarchy among issues and the lessened utility of military force to achieve policy ends. Together these three characteristics hold profound implications for diplomatic activity. They leave unchanged the notion that the fundamental purpose of diplomacy is to lessen conflicts among states and promote peace. And, as Hans Morgenthau argued, it continues to be the primary mechanism for determining goals, strategies and power relationships. What they have done is has make diplomacy “messier” by permitting officials in one state to more readily reach citizens in another and to interact with each other more directly. Complex interdependence has enlarged the universe of political actors who can engage in diplomacy and the goals whose realization diplomacy can advance.
With these observations in mind we can take a new look at the global travels and diplomacy of First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton. The first point to stress is that her diplomacy was conceived of as part of a larger whole. It was never seen in isolation from the broader foreign policy goals of the Clinton administration. At one extreme this took the form of being told to avoid Cuba’s Fidel Castro “at all costs” at a diplomatic function so as not to enrage anti-Castro factions in Florida. It also meant being sent to places the State Department felt was “too small, too dangerous, or too poor” to send the president. A case in point was being sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina to show American support for the Dayton Peace Process. Other times it meant carefully considering the pluses and minuses of a trip to China when U.S.-Chinese tensions were running high due to conflicts over Taiwan, nuclear proliferation and human rights violations and having her speech gone over in advance by UN Ambassador Madeline Albright, Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord and National Security Council human rights specialist Eric Schwartz.


Then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton greets U.S. soldiers as she arrives at Bedrock Camp, an outpost of the U.S. IFOR contingent, near Tuzla, in this March 25, 1996 photo


But with increased political resources and activism also comes the potential for pursuing one’s own foreign policy agenda. The first signs of this taking place came following her speech in Beijing. The first lady notes that “prior to Beijing when we traveled on official visits abroad I accompanied Bill where appropriate and attended spouses programs. In mid November <1996> when we made state visits to Australia, the Philippines and Thailand, I followed my own agenda as well as Bill’s.” She continues, “I usually branched off from Bill’s official delegation… and reinforced the message that a nation’s prosperity is linked to the education and well-being of girls and women.”

Hers was a personal diplomacy rather than an institutional diplomacy. It substituted direct and individual contacts with foreign leaders for the carefully scripted interactions between diplomats occurring in an organizational context that characterized traditional diplomacy. In 1994 she accompanied President Clinton on a trip to Russia that was designed to strengthen ties between Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin. During their discussions the first lady met with Naina Yeltsin. While leading U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics she met with Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, who would go on to head the World Health organization, and discussed health care issues. Other trips would have her meeting with such leaders as South African President Nelson Mandela, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Hungarian Prime Minister Guka Horn, Zambian President Benjamin Mlkapa, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain, Ghana’s President Jerry Rawlings , the Dali Lama, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar of Slovakia.

First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton’s diplomacy was also public diplomacy. Public diplomacy consists of the statements and actions of leaders that are intended to influence the public rather than the official leadership in another country. It is alien to classic diplomacy that emphasizes secrecy and confidential bargaining among like-minded elites. Public diplomacy has been described as the "theater of power.” It is conducted through such varied means as public statements, press briefings, and state visits. Often in the past public diplomacy degenerated into propaganda but new life was breathed into it after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when it became clear that success in the war against terrorism required that the U.S. find a way to talk directly with the people of the Middle East and other societies in which terrorists recruit people and carry out acts of terrorism.


Then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a World Health Organization panel on Women and Health at the U.N. Women's Conference in Beijing in this Sept. 5, 1995 file photo.


In practicing her public diplomacy the first lady’s principal audience was individuals attending a conference or citizens to whom she sought to bring a message of hope. On her visit to Japan for the G-7 summit attended by President Clinton, Hilary Rodham Clinton visited with a group of prominent Japanese women, the first of a dozen meetings of this type she would hold in her travels as first lady. Her trip to South Asia was organized at the request of the State Department that wanted to highlight the administration’s commitment to the region and was unable to arrange for either the president or vice president to make such a trip. In India Hilary Rodham Clinton spoke to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. In Nepal on that same trip she visited a women’s health clinic. Her most politically visible appearance came at the U.N. women’s conference in China where she asserted “it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights” and ended her speech with a call to action.” The speech was politically charged both for its content and timing, coming shortly after the arrest, imprisonment and then release of Chinese dissident Harry Wu. Later she would deliver the keynote address at a “Vital Voices” forum in Vienna. Vital Voices was an outgrowth of the Beijing trip and was designed to bring together NGOs, U.S. government representatives and private corporations to further democracy, entrepreneurship by women, and peace. A trip to Latin America was designed to highlight U.S. economic development programs and the Clinton administration’s attempt to shift popular perceptions of American foreign policy in the region away from foreign aid to military juntas to support for economic and political progress. In a similar fashion her trips to Africa were intended to highlight the self help efforts of African women as supported by U.S. foreign aid.

Her diplomacy also highlighted the blurring of the boundary between domestic and foreign policy. The issues Hilary Rodham Clinton chose to stress were those which have long been a staple of American domestic politics: health, children, education, and the position of women in society. She saw them as key to America and the world’s future as well. “In the new global economy, individual countries and region would find it difficult to make economic or social progress if a disproportionate percentage of their female population remained poor, uneducated, unhealthy and disenfranchised. The first lady also recognized that differences in the two spheres of action, domestic and foreign, continued to exist. At one point in her memoirs she noted “my message abroad carried few of the political overtones of my proposals for specific policies at home . . .

much more: http://www.allacademic.com/one/prol/prol01/index.php?cmd=prol01_search&offset=0&limit=5&multi_search_search_mode=publication&multi_search_publication_fulltext_mod=fulltext&textfield_submit=true&search_module=multi_search&search=Search&search_field=title_idx&fulltext_search=The+Foreign+Policy+Activism+of+First+Lady+Hillary+Rodham+Clinton


Hillary Clinton's Pre-Senate Advocacy Abroad (in pics)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=4968462


Then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton talks with ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, at Stenkovec refugee camp near Skopje, in this May 14, 1999 file photo.

[book_worm]

1. I think President Clinton should weigh in on this.

Was Hillary R. Clinton one of his foreign policy advisors or not? Did she undertake difficult diplomatic missions or not? When he got those 3 AM calls did he consult her?

[bigtree]

7. obviously, some of that is sensitive to the issues involved, as in peace agreements

And other policy initiatives where it's paramount that the president speak with his one voice of authority. He's actually said a great deal on this. I take more from the accounts independent of his opinion though, just on the principle of the conflict of interest and his obvious bias in her favor.

[ingac70]

2. Did she narrowly escape an IRA bomb?

I'm sure that will be her next yarn.

[bigtree]

3. Having trouble with the big words?

take them slowly

[ingac70]

4. Your girl is a laughingstock. She did it to herself.

Don't take it out on me.

[bigtree]

5. go play somewhere else

[juajen]

12. Only Obama supporters would laugh at such a brilliant woman

who is our former First Lady and now a Senator and the first viable female candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America.

NOTE: How to tell Obama supporters from Hillary supporters? Obama supporters fingernails are bitten down to the quick.

"Let it sink" LOL

[snooper2]

13. Oh, don't worry, I laugh at other first ladys all the time...

Nancy fucking Reagan...almost re-deemed herself with stem cell research...but still..She used to scare the fuck out of me when I was young....


Laura Bush, the librarian boyfriend killer, enough said...a B movie should be made on her


Hillary... she's tough, she stands by her man, she blah blah, is a Coporate Whore like 90% of the rest of Congress.....

[bigtree]

14. don't read much do you?

[XemaSab]

43. You forgot Babs

:scared:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. If she were so brilliant she wouldn't be running such a shitty campaign.

Frankly, I haven't seen any evidence of brilliance at all.

[bigtree]

33. so 'shitty' that she's denied Obama the ability to enough delegates to win the nomination

. . . by votes cast alone. Brilliant!

[TheDonkey]

44. Hooray, she's like a hairclog in the bathroom sink.

[dionysus]

54. ROFL

[bigtree]

56. She's the embodiment of the wishes and view of the over 11 million Americans who've voted for her

[anigbrowl]

45. Yeah, he was so inevitable until she came into the race.

Face it bigtree, everyone has known she was going to run since 2000. She's a lot of things, many of them worthy, but she's not the challenger.

[bigtree]

6. All you 'serious' folks sure let this one go.

Folks would rather harp on Sen. Clinton's recounting of her historic trip to the Bosnian war zone than face the truth about the mountains of experience in foreign affairs. Barack Obama can't come close to her record and experience - not even with regard to Bosnia - no matter how the senator is belittled for her one statement.

[anigbrowl]

46. I don't call it mountains of experience

It's diplomacy in action, certainly, and interesting experience. But a lot of it is lightweight (accompanying the winter Olympics team? who cares?).

A good amount of it is sideshow stuff rather than the main event - speaking on women's issues in Belfast or Beijing is certainly worthy, but it's the relish rather than the meat in the sandwich. It doesn't involve heavy negotiation or horse-trading.

Lastly, much of the problem I have with it is that it's state-visit kind of diplomacy. Without underestimating its value, it's kind of about dropping in, meeting, greeting, and maybe speaking, and leaving again. It's not at all the same as building a complex relationship over time as an ambassador in situ has to do, or negotiating with foreign powers and then getting it ratified by congress. On the other hand, she certainly had a front-row seat for 8 years of Bill's presidency, which can only have been useful.

In fairness, I don't think any of the candidates have really strong experience in this area. However, I prefer Obama's proposed policies and policy goals.

[vireo]

8. k&r

:kick:

[bigtree]

9. thanks for the kick

much needed and appreciated

[blm]

10. Was Hillary part of policy decision to DEEP-SIX all the BCCI matters throughout the 90s?

Because when all is said and done the BCCI matters left outstanding in the 90s are the same matters that ended up assuring a Bush2 presidency and ended up flying jets into NYC buildings, this Iraq war, and our future war with Iran........but...... it seems there is a wing of the Democratic party that doesn't CARE.

[bigtree]

11. I don't believe so.

Heck, under that logic, plenty of events and actions 'ended up flying jets into NYC buildings, this Iraq war, and our future war with Iran'. I wouldn't isolate the BCCI mess as the root cause. I know you're working on it, though.

[blm]

29. I don't ISOLATE it - but all those events do have relevant roots in BCCI matters.

You cannot deny that many of BCCI's matters revolved around the illegal operations of drugrunning, armsdealing and nuclear proliferation networks that were a major part of the funding of global terrorism.

Gee - what would any of that have to do with 9-11, Iraq, and Iran?

[polmaven]

22. Isn't President Clinton responsible

for the big bang too? How about for WW1 & WW2? I'm quite sure he is responsible for the Great Depression. .....

Oh yeah...in case there may be some who don't understand....:sarcasm:

[blm]

27. Except those things weren't under Clinton's watch and deep-sixing of BCCI matters in the 90s

was DEFINITELY Clinton's watch, and BCCI figure Jackson Stephens really WAS the same man who bankrolled Clintons' careers in Arkansas and underwrote Bill's primary campaign, so the deep-sixing of its matters protected not just GHWBush but Bill's benefactor Jackson Stephens, and the powerful figures in Dubai and Saudi Arabia who have lined Bill's bank accounts by the tens of millions in recent years.

Hmmm..... would you like to TRY and make a case that Clinton was NOT handed the BCCI report when he took office and there were no outstanding matters that were part of that report and that the protection of BushInc did NOT allow for a Bush2 presidency or the growth of global terrorism.

Ever TRY answering instead of relying on the same typical deflection rhetoric that Bush devotees use?

[redqueen]

48. Has anyone ever attempted

to actually refute or even provide a reasonable explanation for the issues you raise with respect to Jackson Stephens & BCCI?

Ever?

[blm]

50. Nope. They favor the same tactic to avoid those matters that Bush devotees use.

.

[redqueen]

51. I wish I could say I was surprised.

[peaches2003]

15. Pickles is therefore also qualified for POTUS

If this is the criteria for running for Pres., Laura Bush could also be a candidate.

[bigtree]

16. I haven't seen a similar analysis of Laura Bush's record and experiences

because there is none. The comparison is inane and factually dishonest. Read the analysis I provided.

Although, you are coming dangerously close to saying that Laura Bush has more experience in foreign affairs than Sen. Obama.

[dchill]

17. Huge post - still a little thin on substance...

For instance, what about the Dublin-Belfast Peace Accords? What about ducking and running with Sinbad? What about the DU rules on posting copyrighted material?

Rule #5. Copyrights: Do not copy-and-paste entire articles onto this discussion forum. When referencing copyrighted work, post a short excerpt (not exceeding 4 paragraphs) with a link back to the original.

I know, rules don't apply where Hillary is concerned. Nice pictures, though.

[bigtree]

20. the article is FULL of substance. That's just not a credible argument.

I'll take the Dublin criticism, even though it's vague and unsupported by any real premise, and, leave the rest of the typical bullshit which flies around here as legitimate debate, that you included, to your own hands.

from March 22:

Clinton, Once Again, Gets Biggest Northern Ireland Validation of All

by Diane Elayne Dees

March 22nd, 2008

Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume, speaking on a nationally syndicated radio show yesterday, talked about Sen. Clinton’s work in Northern Ireland–her “people-to-people approach, her generous use of time in meeting with the various sectors of the region, her interest in the real concerns and needs of the people of Ireland, and her focus on peace.” He also talked about Clinton’s contributions through her lecturing at the University of Ulster’s Tip O’Neill Chair of Peace Studies on the subject of ‘Peace in the Modern World’. “I have no doubt, given Hillary Clinton’s commitment to peace in the world, as President of the United States, she would give such leadership,” Hume concluded.

In another recent interview, Hume said “I am quite surprised that anyone would suggest that Hillary Clinton did not perform important foreign policy work as first lady. I can state from firsthand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland.”

Recently, former Senator George Mitchell also validated Sen. Clinton’s claims that she was part of negotiating the peace process in Northern Ireland, after these claims were questioned. “She was helpful and supportive, very much involved in the issues, knew all of the delegates,” Mitchell said. “She accompanied President Clinton on each visit he made to Northern Ireland, made several visits of her own. Her greatest focus was on encouraging women in Northern Ireland to get in and stay in the political process, the peace process. And I have said publicly many times and wrote in my book, the role of women in the peace process in Northern Ireland was significant. It did make a difference in the process, so as I said I think it was a helpful and supportive role.”

http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2008/03/22/clinton-once-again-gets-biggest-northern-ireland-validation-of-all/

[dchill]

23. And you quote Hume, but not Trimble...

which I'll not bother to do, because it would be a wee bit silly. As far as her tall tale about Tuzla being "typical bullshit which flies around here" - well, I think it's much more than and something completely other than BS, and so do you.

[bigtree]

25. Ah, you want to speak for me on her misstatement about Bosnia.

I think it's a sick obsession which is actually an attempt to dismiss the historic nature of the First Lady's visit to the war zone which was recognized in the press, at the time, as the first such visit (referring to the risk) since Eleanor Roosevelt.

Given that Clinton already laid out an account in a book, I'm willing to accept that she misspoke, and, to move on. I understand, though, that politics will entice some to develop the old narrative of the 'liar' and try and apply that, exclusively' to Hillary Clinton.

Glass houses, I say. Glass houses.


I gave you this article because it's current. I don't expect anything I post now, though, to trump your embrace of Trimble. But, there's this, as well . . .



Report: Sen. Obama Acknowledges Hillary's Role In Northern Ireland Peace Process

3/18/2008 6:11:17 PM

Anchor: The Taoiseach has said it would be very unfair for anyone to deny Hilary Clinton credit for her role in the peace process. Speaking in Washington Mr. Ahern said she had played an important role in the process along with her husband.

Reporter: A busy round of official engagements in Washington today finished at Congress with a lunch hosted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. The three candidates for the presidency weren’t there, but Mr. Ahern did meet Hillary Clinton and speak on the phone to Barack Obama this morning. The Obama campaign has been questioning Senator Clinton’s involvement in the peace process but Mr. Ahern said she had played a significant and important role.

Ahern: “I have to say in my conversation this morning that was totally acknowledged by Senator Obama. So I’m not getting into the politics of this but I think for anyone to try to question the Clinton’s huge support and start trying to nit-pick.”

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6602


and, this:

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams told The Irish Times that, although he admires all three remaining US presidential candidates and is not endorsing any of them, Mrs. Clinton is justified in claiming a role in the peace process. "David Trimble is reported as saying Senator Hillary Clinton played no part in the Irish peace process. That is not true. Senator Clinton played an important role in the peace process," he said. "I met the senator on many occasions when she was First Lady, and subsequently when she became a senator for New York State. I always found her to be extremely well informed on the issues."

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6490


this as well:


The Facts: Hillary and Northern Ireland

3/8/2008 9:30:00 AM

Hillary traveled to Northern Ireland seven times between 1995 and 2004, and gave what Northern Irish leader and Nobel Laureate John Hume recently described as “decisive support” to the peace process in Northern Ireland. She focused especially on encouraging the emergence of women in the political process. In addition, Hillary's work at the grass roots and behind-the-scenes helped cultivate the conditions necessary for the peace to take hold and last.

As political leaders on all sides of the process have attested, Hillary made important contributions in a wide variety of ways. She made private calls to the negotiating parties on all sides and at all levels to encourage them towards peace. She gave advice and technical assistance to Northern Ireland leaders on a range of governance issues. She used the bully pulpit to inspire and to challenge at a major address in 1998 before leaders from the contending sides.

In 1998 under the auspices of the U.S.-led Vital Voices Democracy Initiative, established by Hillary and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the previous year – Hillary brought together 400 women in Belfast, Northern Ireland to foster their rise to prominence and leadership and to ensure that their success helped support peace. She met with community workers and with women politicians in Northern Ireland to encourage them to take on a larger role. She carried a pledge to the government of Ireland that the United States would remain a partner in the peace process.

Senator George Mitchell said that “She was very much involved in encouraging the emergence of women in the political process in Northern Ireland, which was a significant factor in ultimately getting an agreement.”

Hillary’s efforts have continued as Senator. She visited the Republic of Ireland on her first trip during her Senate term, and Northern Ireland on her second trip, where she spoke with all of the major leaders in Northern Ireland.

Every year, she meets with the Taoiseach and other party leaders from Ireland. She continues to take calls from all parties to provide help behind the scenes and to keep the process moving forward. And she has held meetings in her office at the request of Northern Irish officials on job creation, trade, agriculture, autism, policing, economic development – and of course reconciliation.

In December 2007, when Martin McGuiness and Ian Paisley were in Washington, they met with President Bush and Hillary, thanking Hillary for her contribution to the peace process.

Testimonials:

Statement from John Hume former MP MEP, founder of the SDLP and an architect of the Good Friday Agreement. He is the only person to win the Nobel Prize for Peace, the Ghandi Peace Award and the Martin Luther King Peace Prize.

“I am quite surprised that anyone would suggest that Hillary Clinton did not perform important foreign policy work as First Lady. I can state from firsthand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

She visited Northern Ireland, met with very many people and gave very decisive support to the peace process. There is no doubt that the people of Northern Ireland think very positively of Hillary Clinton’s support for our peace process, due to her visits to Northern Ireland and her meetings with so many people. In private she made countless calls and contacts, speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, urging them to keep moving forward.

Anyone criticizing her foreign policy involvement should look at her very active and positive approach to Northern Ireland and speak with the people of Northern Ireland who have the highest regard for her and are very grateful for her very active support for our peace process.”

Inez McCormack, first female president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions:

"Hillary Clinton took risks for peace in asking me and others to bring women and communities from both traditions to affirm their capacity to work for common purpose and to assert, when there was no public dialogue which supported it, that working for common purpose on the basis of mutual respect was the core of effective peace building. She used her immense influence to give women like me space to develop this work and validated it every step of the way. This approach is now taken for granted bit it wasn't then. She told us that if we take risks for peace, she would stay with us on that journey. In my experience, it took hard work, attention to detail and a commitment of time and energy which she delivered steadily and where it was needed over the last decade."

Baroness May Blood of the House of Lords, who worked for many years as a community leader in the Shankill area of West Belfast

"The First Lady sent the message that the work and influence that grassroots women were undertaking within their communities was just as important as anything else that was taking place. I witnessed her building new confidence in women at the grassroots level and their stature grew within Northern Ireland as a consequence. All of a sudden they were being taken more seriously. The message we were also told by Hillary Clinton was that this work needed a political focus."

Geraldine McAteer, Chief Executive of West Belfast Partnership Board

"As First Lady, Hillary Clinton was extremely supportive of the peace process in Northern Ireland, and in particular, of the women who live here. In her visits during the peace process negotiations she met with women from a range of backgrounds and she recognized there was a real need to strengthen and support the voices of women in the post conflict context and get the needs of women and communities to the forefront of the new political agenda. She recognized that this would be best done through building the skillls of women here. Through her Vital Voices Conference in September 1998, I and others were able to develop our skills for the betterment of our communities."

News reports:

2007: Hillary honored for her work on the Northern Ireland Peace process. Irish American Magazine named Hillary “Person of the Year”, celebrating “her work on the Northern Ireland peace process”. Irish American Magazine, April/May 07

2007: Hillary met with Irish leaders who wanted to 'pay their respects to Hillary' for her work on behalf of peace in Northern Ireland. Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley recently traveled to Washington on behalf of the fledging Northern Ireland government, and they specifically requested two personal meetings: one with President George W. Bush and one with Senator Hillary Clinton. They wanted to “pay their respects to Hillary” for her long and varied role in promoting and working for peace in Northern Ireland. Guardian, December 8, 2007. As McGuinness put it, “these are wonderfully exciting times for all of us back home, not least because of the contributions made by President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton.” AP, December 7, 2007.

1999: Northern Ireland Secretary: ‘Hillary is one of the essential reasons’ Ireland had peace. An August 1999 issue of Talk Magazine quotes Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam: "Hillary is one of the essential reasons we've had 18 months of relative peace. Without her we would have no economic boom."

1999: Hillary made frequent trips to Northern Ireland where she was 'not just in the humdrum affairs of state…but in the nitty gritty of the political scene' “A few years back the notion of an American First Lady speaking out on any aspect of life in Northern Ireland would have been taboo. Now it is accepted that not just this First Lady but also her husband make frequent trips to the North, and that they become involved not just in the humdrum affairs of state such as opening a new training center or mouthing niceties at a conference, but in the nitty gritty of the political scene too." Irish Voice, May 25, 1999

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6430

[H2O Man]

18. As First Lady,

Hillary Clinton did participate in the efforts to resolve the extremely difficult problems confronting the people of Northern Ireland. Her work was important, and it was appreciated. There is, sadly, efforts to pretend that her role was: (a) less insignificant than it was; or (b) more significant than it was.

An interesting source on the Clinton administration's efforts in Northern Ireland is Tim Pat Coogan's book, "The Troubles." Published in 2002, the book provides an objective view of the roles of the US politicians and citizens who participated in the peace process. I strongly recommend it for those who are interested in the truth about the Peace Process.

[1776Forever]

19. Hillary never had a security clearance during her White House years

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/23/02959/8209/593/482476

Hillary's Smoking Gun at 3 am - It's the security clearance!
Sat Mar 22, 2008

(snip)

Bottom line, it has been repeatedly reported that Hillary never had a security clearance during her White House years.

www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/us/politics/26clinton.html

This is the fatal flaw that puts the lie to all of Hillary's claims of foreign policy experience that supposedly enables her to know how to answer that phone.

Anyone with government experience knows that, without a security clearance, you are essentially disqualified from any serious responsibilty in this nation' s foreign policy apparatus. Folks should remember that, during the McCarthy years, the route of attack often was to get a target's security clearance revoked, and their career would be automatically over. And, more recently, Paul Wolfowitz helped his "companion," a foreign national, get a security clearance because "she had to receive a security clearance to work at the State Department."

www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/04/19/wolfowitz/

...............

Hello!!!!!!!!!!! This is just pitiful!

:wow:

[bigtree]

21. Interesting. And, yet, she still manages to accomplish so much

. . . and far outmatch her rival in this campaign in her experience in foreign affairs. Not such a 'fatal flaw', after all.

[TheDonkey]

42. Yes, traveling photo ops. How impressive

but maybe we can sex those photo ops up by saying there was sniper fire in the air or she got to the situation BEFORE it was actually solved (of course meaning lies lies lies).

[bigtree]

57. Photo ops are fine, but most of the work she managed during that time isn't on film

It's recorded in policy papers like this one.

[SeaLyons]

24. K&R

:kick:

[susankh4]

26. Very nice!

Thank you.

K&R.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

28. Photo ops and luncheons.

You don't see me claiming foriegn policy experience even though I've been to all the different countries at Epcot.

[bigtree]

30. don't like to read much, huh?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. Sure.

But I read the same sort of bullshit nonsense we've heard from Clinton before, "send the first lady to the most dangerous countries, smallest countries blah blah blah."

Did you read this before you posted it?

[bigtree]

34. Well, then you'll just remain ignorant of it all. What a shame.

Go on back out and play then.

[Catherina]

35. In other words

[bigtree]

38. one trick pony

you

[Catherina]

59. I'm flattered you remember. How do you like my new trick? I made it for you

How do you like my new one? I made it for you with love in my heart. The skies opened up, light came down, celestial choirs sang and I knew I should do the right thing and make you a perfect image to commerorate perfect the day Hillary killed her pown campaign. :hug:

[bigtree]

60. I think her historic visit is what sticks in your craw

There's really NOTHING in your candidate's resume which is remotely comparable to her work as First Lady of the United States visiting our troops and offering the locals support in the war torn country.

[Catherina]

61. What sticks in my craw are all her lies.

The only historic aspect of that visit is that it's burying her campaign; this one's headed straight for the history books and not as a footnote either.

It's funny you should say that. The BBC was talking about that very subject just today. Were you able to catch the news show? They went over her accomplishments in Bosnia, Macedonia and Ireland. The British MP weighing in was interesting too.

Knowing how busy you are trying to put out all the fires, I saved you a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao2D-YBb1Zo

[elixir]

36. Great post, BT. Thanks.

[bigtree]

58. Oh, you are welcome

nice to see a substantive evaluation of her work as First Lady.

[LiberalAndProud]

37. k&r

This may be the single positive post in GD:P today for either candidate. I'll keep looking and kicking where I find 'em.

Thanks again, bigtree.

[bigtree]

39. kick

:kick:

[VeraAgnes]

40. That is a terrific site!

I bookmarked it for future use. Thank You again.....

[Lucinda]

41. Thanks for the post!

Great find.

[Raffi Ella]

47. Ah,substance! Such a nice thing to come across

Hillary is the woman for the times.

:dem:

[Jed Dilligan]

49. Perfect example of academic drivel

If it was a conference paper in 2005 how come it hasn't been published? Maybe because of sentences like: "What they have done is has make diplomacy “messier” by permitting officials in one state to more readily reach citizens in another and to interact with each other more directly." Or maybe it just doesn't mean anything and reads like North Korean propaganda.

Thanks a lot--I've spent enough of my life listening to and reading crap like this.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

52. It's like reading a sixth grade paper.

"The first lady speaks not only of her long personal involvement in these types of problems of her mother as understanding from personal experience that “many children –through no fault of their own- were disadvantaged and discriminated against from birth...she had watched Japanese-Americans in her school endure blatant discrimination and daily taunts from the Anglo students"
...

Conclusion
" What then are the most important variables that influenced Hillary Rodham’s foreign policy activism? First, her early life was instrumental in forging her optimism and vision that she so passionately applied to the foreign policy area. Second, her education and knowledge of and commitment to her issues were especially important. They later contributed to her personal international diplomacy. Third, her professional relationship with the president was also very important. Her office was highly integrated with the White House Office. Mrs. Clinton practiced foreign policy in synch with the Clinton Administration but she also achieved a certain amount of independence as her trips to Australia, the Philippines and Thailand demonstrated. Fourth, the interplay between Mrs. Clinton’s issues and her alliances of power were crucial to her public diplomacy. She forged alliances with various NGOs and interest groups to advance the cause of issues important to women and children alike on the international level. "


I don't necessarily disagree with the thoughts, but this is a poor paper.

It's like Colbert's college essay in IAAASCY.

[bigtree]

55. Well then, it's written at a level that will be easily understood by her constant critics

[SemiCharmedQuark]

62. I don't mean to offend.

Hillary Clinton is quite accomplished. Many people have written brilliant articles about her. I admire the authors' enthusiasm and I think they lay out some great points. However, I personally don't find the article to be particularly scholarly. It is more along the lines of someone's personal and heartfelt beliefs. I think it would be more appropriate in that context than in the academic context.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

53. kick